Directional Aviation Has Lofty Aspirations for SimCom

Directional Aviation recently completed its acquisition of SimCom and has big plans for the Orlando, Florida-based aviation training provider, parent company chairman Kenn Ricci told AIN. Under Directional’s wing, Ricci plans three main components at SimCom: owner-pilot training, fleet-focused business aircraft training, and a pilot academy. It also later plans to expand into maintenance training, he said.

While SimCom is the leading provider of simulator training for the owner-pilot market, it does so at off-airport locations in Orlando and Scottsdale, Arizona. Ricci plans to move these centers to property at yet-to-be-determined airports in Florida and “possibly Arizona” to allow owner-pilots to fly and taxi up to them. Further, he envisions these centers as “social places” where pilots can visit even when not undergoing training, as well as to hold aviation safety seminars and other events.

Meanwhile, the company plans to reconfigure its business aircraft training to cater more to fleet operators such as Directional’s Flexjet, employing an airline training model. Under this scenario, Ricci said all ground training would be conducted online, not in the classroom, and pilots would fly 10 hours in the simulator over just three days, minimizing the time they are not flying the line.

To address the pilot shortage, Ricci said SimCom will open a pilot academy to cultivate new aviators and provide graduates with flow-through flying opportunities at Directional’s divisions.

Dallas To Implement DAL GA Landing Fee January 1

The City of Dallas will implement a general aviation landing fee of $5.15 per 1,000 pounds at Dallas Love Field (DAL) beginning January 1. Mark Duebner, director of the Dallas Airport System, notified the Love Field Pilots Association (LFPA) of the final fee determination in a recent letter, saying the city took into account operators' concerns.

The fees are designed to cover 20 percent of DAL’s operational and maintenance costs for the airfield. Vector Airport Systems, which administers fee programs for airports, will assess and bill the fees. The city defines a general aviation aircraft as any aircraft that is not a commercial aircraft, Duebner said, adding that transient and base tenants will be charged the same rate. However, no fuel flowage fee will be assessed for those paying the general aviation landing fee, he added. The fee would not apply to flights conducted for test, inspection, or ferry for maintenance purposes. In addition charitable and government flights would be exempt. 

LFPA found the elimination of the fuel flowage fee for those paying the landing fee as a welcome move. “The bad news is that they will assess $5.15/1000 pounds of certified gross landing weight to base and transient Part 91 flights alike,” said LFPA president Sean Lynch. The $5.15 was revised downward slightly from the original proposal of $5.80/1,000 pounds.

Yingling FBO Adds Hangar Space in $4M Expansion

Yingling Aviation, an independent FBO and MRO facility at Wichita Eisenhower National Airport, has acquired the lease to a former Hawker Beechcraft Services hangar that allows it to expand its MRO activities and, for the first time, add aircraft paint services, the company announced Wednesday.

The 50,000-sq-ft hangar is just north of Yingling’s main facilities at KICT and includes a paint booth large enough to accommodate up to a Hawker 800.

The addition of the Hawker hangar as well as construction of a separate, 23,000-sq-ft avionics and maintenance hangar will give Yingling 73,000 sq ft of space on top of its 125,000 sq ft of existing facilities, Yingling owner Lynn Nichols said.

Nichols said renovations are under way on the paint and prep areas and should be complete by mid-January 2019. More extensive renovations to the Hawker hangar will occur throughout 2019, he said. The new avionics hangar is expected to be completed in January 2019.

In all, Nichols said work on the Hawker and new avionics hangars will be a $4 million investment. He expects to add 25 employees with the hangar expansions, primarily A&Ps, avionics technicians, painters, and sheet metal mechanics.

NasJet To Focus on Aircraft Management

Saudi Arabia’s NasJet Private Aviation, the business-jet unit of the Flynas Group, has sold a number of aircraft and will concentrate on a new model focusing on aircraft management. Consolidation of the group is well under way, Yosef F. Hafiz, NasJet vice president of sales and marketing, commercial, told AIN.

“Flynas intends to conduct an IPO next year. Over the past year, the consolidation of all three primary companies in the NAS Holding Group, Flynas, the airline, NasJet, the private aviation side of the business, and our Hajj and Umrah operations—wet leases of larger aircraft for mass movements of people from particular countries into Madinah and Jeddah—has been taking place. There is a fourth handling company, a joint venture with ExecuJet, headquartered in Riyadh,” he said.

“NasJet Private Aviation has seen a lot of restructuring. We have sold many of the aircraft we owned.”

This includes the companies Hawker 750s, in addition to the return of three Gulfstream GIV-SPs on lease. “At NasJet, moving away from ownership of aircraft was the objective, to focus on revenues and profits. We want to refocus more on charter and management,” Hafiz added, saying NasJet’s ability to charter aircraft successfully would later lead to new purchases from major OEMs like Airbus, Bombardier, or Gulfstream, as increases in charter revenue make ownership more cost-effective.

Colorado Airport Issues RFP for FBO Operators

Colorado’s Alamosa County has reissued an RFP to manage the lone FBO at San Luis Valley Regional Airport (ALS). The county has been operating the facility since June after it failed to reach an agreement with incumbent Mountain View Aeromotive, which also provided maintenance at the airport. ALS sees approximately 30 operations a day from its 8,500-foot runway, which underwent a $6 million resurfacing and lighting replacement project in 2017. The facility includes a 3,000-sq-ft, two-story terminal and more than 17,000 sq ft of heated hangar space that can accommodate aircraft up to a Citation XLS.

“For the past four months, Alamosa County has been operating the FBO at the San Luis Valley Regional Airport,” noted airport manager Will Hickman. “We are looking forward to bringing in a private company to operate and manage this aspect of our airport operations to attain more aircraft operations, as well as provide more services to our customers including maintenance.”

Proposals are due on December 21, after which the airport will award an initial 10-year contract with a possible renewal option. It will continue to provide fueling services on an interim basis until the new operator gets up to speed in equipping and staffing the facility. It also said it expects to negotiate a fuel flowage fee with the next operator.

Cutter Aviation Family Patriarch Passes

William (Bill) R. Cutter, patriarch of the Cutter Aviation family, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 86, according to the company, which recently celebrated its 90th anniversary. A lifelong aviation enthusiast, he learned to fly as a boy, on the lap of his father, company founder William P. Cutter, and eventually went on to earn ATP ratings in fixed-wing, helicopter, and lighter-than-air aircraft. He logged thousands of flight hours during his lifetime, most recently in his 1944 Beech Staggerwing.

Cutter later took over the family FBO, MRO, and aircraft sales business and established its flagship facility at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Along with his son Will, he enlarged the company network to four FBO locations and several maintenance/avionics facilities throughout the Southwest.

He served in the U.S. Army, and during his business career, he was honored by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and the New Mexico Military Institute. Cutter further was inducted into the Pima Air and Space Museum’s Hall of Fame, and in 1994 was awarded the National Air Transportation Association's highest honor: the William A. “Bill” Ong Memborial Award. He is remembered for the time spent at the company’s facilities, engaging with every employee on a first name basis.

He is survived by his children Will and Kathryn, and four grandchildren. The company noted that memorial arrangements will be released at a later date.

Dubai South Concentrates on Hangarage

Dubai South, owner and operator of Al Maktoum International Airport’s Aviation District, plans to open as many as seven new Code F hangars, located adjacent to plots already taken by Dubai’s DC Aviation Al-Futtaim and Falcon Aviation–and capable of fitting an Airbus A380–by 2022, bringing the total to nine.

“We have concluded a deal with ExecuJet for three Code C hangars,” said Tahnoon Saif, CEO aviation, Dubai South, “and with DC Aviation for two. Jetex has already completed its hangar. Now we are working on support activities. We are building VIP catering facilities, set for completion in the second quarter of 2020, as well as a fuel farm for private jets, which should be finished in 2019."

Plans for the Aviation District have crystallized significantly since the MEBAA event in 2016, and hangarage forms a major part of the proposition, as operators, particularly in Saudi Arabia, are hamstrung by a dearth of adequate facilities for parking, to say nothing of protecting aircraft from the harsh summer environment in the region. Lufthansa Technik, GE, and AII Corporation have all taken on standalone hangar commitments in the district, Saif said.

The Aviation District is located in the south western zone of the larger DWC site and contains an airside free zone, aerospace supply chain, hospitality, warehousing, light industry, and education facilities, as well as the Emirates Flight Training Academy.

CAE Renews Bizav Fleet Operator Training Agreements

Global flight training provider CAE, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, has signed training renewal agreements with several worldwide business aviation operators.

Private jet charter and management provider Alerion has renewed its exclusive pilot training contract for two years on multiple aircraft platforms, including those from all the major jet OEMs. Meanwhile, Germany-based DC Aviation, which has been a CAE client since 2008, has signed on for another three years of Bombardier, Dassault, and Gulfstream initial type rating and recurrent training. Windsor Jet, which has used CAE as its training partner for more than a decade, renewed that exclusive arrangement for an additional four years, on multiple platforms including the Citation X, Gulfstream IV and V, and Hawker 800XP.

Privately held U.S. aircraft design and manufacturer Icon Aviation, which joined the CAE customer family last year with 70 pilots beginning initial type rating as well as recurrent training, has inked a two-year exclusive deal for training on a variety of aircraft from Gulfstream, Cessna, Dassault, Embraer, and Beechcraft.

“We are excited to support our customers’ growth and we look forward to working with them long into the future,” said Nick Leontidis, CAE’s group president of civil aviation training solutions.